The millennial generation: A new type of student arrives on campus

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The millennial generation A new type of student
arrives on campus

• Dr. Jeanna Mastrodicasa
• UF Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs
• jmastro_at_ufl.edu

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Generations

• Perceived membership in a common generation
• A set of age locations, common beliefs and
  behaviors
• A common location in history

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Generations in the U.S.

• Lost Generation (born 1883-1900)
• GI Generation (born 1901-24)
• Silent Generation (born 1925-42)
• The Boom Generation (born 1943-60)
• Generation X (born 1961-81)
• Millennials (born 1982-now)

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Millennials the wanted children

• Children of baby boomers
• Parents wait until later in life, more affluent
• Baby on Board signs
• Marketing to children increases Barney, Hanson,
  Spice
• Family decision making, e.g. vacations
• Politicians started talking about effects on
  children for first time
• Helicopter parents

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7 Characteristics of Millennials
Sheltered
Special
Achieving
Confident
Team Oriented
Pressured
Conventional
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Special

• Collectively vital to the nation
• Individually vital to their parents sense of
  purpose
• Parental involvement in decisions
• Feedback and structure for students

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Sheltered

• Safety and health focus for students
• Security in residence halls
• Parents buying homes for students on campus
• Increase in counseling and medical needs
• More scrutiny of what happens in classroom
• Post-Columbine era

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Confident

• Positive reinforcement from society
• Want to reinvent civic order (9/11)
• Confident about futuregreater danger and fewer
  rewards to being different than peers
• High level of trust and optimism
• Good news for selves good news for country

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Team-Oriented

• Learn, deliver presentations, and get graded in
  groups
• Activities in teams throughout childhood
• Constant contact with peers via cellphone and IM
• Growing gap in gender achievement (women)

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Conventional

• Focus on big brands (e.g. Ivy League schools)
• Grew up with zero tolerance for misbehavior
• More willing to accept adult authority than other
  generations
• Believe that authority is telling the truth

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Pressured

• Two top issues of worry for teenagers grades
  and college admissions
• Intense emphasis on planning future
• Seek job and life stability
• Cheating increases

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Achieving

• SAT scores are the highest since 1974
• Focus on not falling behind of peers
• Prefer subjects where can measure objective
  progress (math, science)
• Focus on accountability in schools
• Should become the smartest and best-educated
  generation in U.S. history

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Seven characteristics of millennials

• Special
• Sheltered
• Confident
• Team-oriented
• Conventional
• Pressured
• Achieving

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Diversity of millennials

• More likely to be biracial or multiracial
• Rising number of immigrants to US
• Racial issues are more than just black and white
  includes Latino, Asian, and people of all
  nationalities

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Millennial attitudes about race

• More open attitudes towards issues of diversity
  and social justice
• Mixed messages about race and race relations
• Rodney King/LA Riots
• OJ Simpson trial
• Affirmative action debated in media and courts
• Attention to illegal immigration issues
• More aware of interracial couples
• People of color in high profile governmental
  positions

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Characteristics of todays parents

• Protective
• Want their sons/daughters safe and secure
• Involved
• Want to help them achieve
• Concerned
• Want them to receive their fair share
• Intelligent
• College educated
• Demanding
• Savvy customers

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Millennial relationships with parents

• Perpetual access to parents (cell phones) keeps
  them in a permanent state of dependency
• Todays children dont know how to solve problems
  or to plan ahead
• Parents do problem solving

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College Students Topics of Conversation with
Parents from Junco and Mastrodicasa survey
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American College Health Association

• the percentage of students who reported
  depression and anxiety in the last school year
  increased steadily from 2000 to 2005.
• 45.7 of the 54,111 students in the spring 2005
  survey reported being so depressed that it was
  difficult to function.

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E-mail is for old people?

• Pew Internet study found that teenagers preferred
  new technology, like instant messaging or text
  messaging, for talking to friends and use e-mail
  to communicate with "old people."
• students say they still depend on e-mail to
  communicate with their professors
• But many of the students say they would rather
  send text messages to friends, to reach them
  wherever they are, than send e-mail messages that
  might not be seen until hours later.

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Online social network sites

• Internet social network sites provide online
  connections to friends, business contacts, and
  more
• Virtual community centers for hanging outlike
  hanging out at the mall
• www.thefacebook.com
• www.myspace.com

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Harris Interactive Poll

• 85 of students who visit social networking sites
  use them to see what their friends are up to
• 70 participate in their message boards to
  communicate with friends
• 18-24 year old students are hanging out for 6.5
  hours per week on average
• Have 111 friends across their profiles
• 61 say they are interacting with people theyve
  never met in person

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Social Networking sites and the Net Generation

• Sowhy are millennials always on these sites?
• Sheltered
• Team-oriented
• Conventional
• (and more!)
• They are content creatorsinternet is where to
  express their identity

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Discussion

• Observations?
• Reactions?
• Solutions?

For a complete list of references and resources,
please contact Jeanna Mastrodicasa at
jmastro_at_ufl.edu To order the book
www.naspa.org